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Extend the federal tax credit on rooftop solar

By Bryan Miller from San Francisco Chronicle

Over the next few weeks, Congress will debate the critical investment tax credit, the only national solar policy in America. Without an extension of the tax credit, Bloomberg New Energy Finance warns that 100,000 solar workers will lose their jobs and 7,000 solar companies will disappear. Most of those job losses would be here in California — the state that created the modern solar industry.

Across California are schools, churches, farms, small businesses and 450,000 homes that benefit today from solar savings. Without the investment tax credit, many Californians will not be able to install solar power. In other states where solar is just getting off the ground, such as Nevada, Utah, South Carolina and New Hampshire, growth of the solar industry will stop. This matters to the residents of those states, but it should also matter to Californians, because climate change does not respect state lines. Emissions-free solar technologies effectively replace the energy produced by traditional, carbon-emitting electric generation.